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>> so there's not even the excuse that some Linux or BSD distribution wasn't production-ready

Possible there's a lot of custom software used across the navy which is only support on Windows XP. Maybe too costly to rewrite than for another system and have it interoperate with other ships etc. on the old (current) system.

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More likely, the manufacturer simply couldn't be arsed to use anything better. This sort of contract is rarely decided on features - it's settled by long-winded political process (where will the ship be built? What country will supply parts? Etc etc) between a very small array of suppliers (if there is an array at all, more often it's a single company in each country), where OS choice is probably the lowest priority. In fact, UK Navy upper echelons might have even preferred XP because it didn't require any extra training for their existing workforce.

That's it exactly. The software was already written to run on XP and the crew trained to use those versions of the software. As long as the ship's hardwired-only network is secured from the outside and physical access is limited (disable USB ports, lock down BIOS, locked cabinets, sealed ethernet conduits, etc), you won't have any problems with typical malware and people will have less opportunity to infect systems. Additionally, you can run whitelists to limit what files can even exist on the system or be run. As long as the firewall is strong, network access is restricted to need based, and any servers are fully patched, the various clients on the ship don't need any additional protection from attacks.

As an argument of running on Windows maybe, but I can't really see how that would restrict you to Windows XP. It will probably cost them more to make sure new software can run on Windows XP, than porting the few pieces of software that couldn't run on more modern versions.

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